Gregor and the Circle of Hatred
by L.Varys
Summary: It's been about five years since Gregor and his family left the Underland. He has settled back into society with his family. But soon a foe never thought to arise has finally come to get his revenge on the city that imprisoned him for years. Beware for occasional language.
1. Chapter 1: Past, Present, Future

**Well, I suppose I actually did it. I actually finished the start of my new project. I can't exactly guarantee that my updating will become more frequent and that I will be back permanently. But hey I'm back for now and that's all that matters I suppose. Well, get to reading folks! Hope Y'all enjoy!**

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 **Chapter 1: Past, Present, Future**

Honestly, I didn't think I'd end up like this. I wanted to do so much less violent things when I was younger. But hey, you know how it goes right? You get into some serious crap when you are like me.

What exactly does 'like me' mean? Well, let me give you the rundown.

It all started about six years ago when I fell into a deep dark grate in the laundry room of my apartment, the 'nice' dwelling that my family and I had been living in. We had pretty much a normal life in the Big Apple or New York City. I think it was normal for a sort of a bit below average family. I lived with my mom, my dad, my two younger sisters, and my grandma. It stayed normal for quite a while until my dad disappeared one night.

Oh yeah, I'm sure you know this already but my name is Gregor. I'm a rager. "What is a rager?" Most ask but since you are here I'm guessing you already know what a rager is but just in case you don't I intend to explain it to you in a bit.

Ok... So let's see. A few months after my dad's disappearance, my littlest sister, Margaret (or Boots as we used to call her) and I fell into a grate in the laundry room. This grate was not just any grate you see. It was a gate to a whole new world below the surface of the earth. The residents of this underworld called themselves the Underlanders. The Underland was home to many oversized creatures the overlanders or surface dwellers see as small critters such as bats, rats, mice, cockroaches, moles, lightning bugs, spiders, scorpions, and such.

But the one truly amazing thing about these creatures is that THEY CAN TALK. I know amazing right? Yeah, they could talk to each other and give each species a cool nickname. But still, even with words the species still had fights with each other.

The humans that lived there had a prophet named Bartholomew Sandwich or something. He makes some pretty crazy prophecies that everyone seemed to believe. So hey when I got there they called me the Warrior which I wasn't too thrilled about. But meh whatever, I'm pretty much retired from that role now. The residents of the Underland also gave names to powers or talents you could say that were more common in the Underland than the overland such as seers, scentseers, and ragers. Seers can see the future I suppose. Scentseers can use their sense of smell to determine movement, landscape, color, etc. Ragers are natural born fighters as I am, although, ragers are very rarely humans.

I don't think I'll tell you all the details. That is for you to discover. This story is about the present and I'm sure none of you want to hear my great and amazing backstory of heroics. Now TO THE PRESENT!

What can I say? I see some shady dudes ganging up on a young lady in an alleyway in New York City and what do I do? Don't pay attention? Of course not. I rush in and beat the hell out of the dudes. Considering what I am, it was no problem at all taking them out. But hey the cop who saw me save the day wouldn't have it. Come on. A 17-year-old kid running to the rescue of a lady surrounded by three dudes didn't seem so smart or safe to the police. So guess what? Instead of him just taking the offenders in, he took me in too. Guess he didn't want a high schooler doing his job for him. Fair enough. But oh dang was my mom pissed. When she came to pick me up from the station she didn't look at all pleased with what I had accomplished.

"GREGOR! What in the hell is wrong with you?!" She barked at me angrily after she took me back to our apartment. "You should not just charge into a fight like that without thinking! Just think about what your dad would say!" I just shrugged and went to my room. I knew she was yelling at me but I couldn't care less what she was saying.

I should probably tell you what has happened since we got back from the Underland. Lemme tell you the gist of it.

After we got back my mom immediately called our relatives in Virginia and asked we could move there and live with them. They, of course, were ok with it on a few conditions. We would have to pay a portion of the property expenses, we would have to pay for transportation there, we would have to work out on the farm, and much to my displeasure I would have to take my cousin, Malinda, who was a month and a half younger than me to the school dance that year.

My mom reluctantly decided it wasn't worth it although she wouldn't mind letting me go to the school dance with Malinda because she just wanted me to forget Luxa, the girl I sort of fell in love with down in the Underland. She just couldn't afford it without income.

Well anyway, we stayed in the same apartment because it was still overall a nice place even though my mom made the laundry room off limits. In other words, NO UNDERLAND. My dad started teaching science again at the middle school when the next school year started.

Every time I see foul play, I immediately rush in and take care of the bastards much like the ones earlier today. My mom, of course, is never happy when I get in fights. That's pretty much all that's been happening for the past five years.

Ok, so I went to my room blah blah blah. I decided to sit down, read, a book, and then take a nap.

When I woke up I went back into the main room, poured some nice tea, and took a seat at the dinner table and waited for dinner time.

About half an hour later or so my family had all settled at the table and waited for my dad to get home after a teacher conference at the school. We then heard a key finding its way into the doorknob outside and then came in the big man.

"Good evening everyone," My dad said casually and took out a newspaper while taking his seat at the table. He became startled after he turned the page in the paper. "Grace, have you heard about the mysterious disappearances and appearances of random people every once and a while?" He said to my mom with curiosity, "Says hear that all over the city, many people end up disappearing for a day or two then reappearing without any memory of what happened to them over those days."

"No, I can't say that I have," Mom said contently, "It's all probably just some people getting drunk and getting on the wrong bus or something." Dad shook his head. We all then went back to eating. It was pretty much quiet for the rest of the meal. When I finished eating I got up, scraped the crumbs into the trash can, put my dishes in the sink, and walked away to my nice little cozy room.

I guess I haven't told you what I've been doing at all since I got out of the Underland except for, of course, not go back to the Underland. Right when I went back to school, I just wasn't into it. I had just missed so much time, it was a huge pain to catch up even when I was forced to go to tutorials before and after school. Eventually, I got back on track so it was fine.

I may have gotten my grades back on track but all my classmates were obviously still confused about why I was gone for so long. They didn't seem to believe the story that I had an extreme case of the flu. Instead, they came up with random assumptions that I had been hit by a car and was recuperating, or say I was kidnapped and tracked down by the FBI, or crazy stuff like that.

On top of all that, I just couldn't get into anything that I really liked. My interest in saxophone vanished and when I tried sports, they just all seemed so boring and pointless compared to what I had been through. So I ended up an outsider without many friends and whatnot. But whatever I'm still here and kicking.

My sisters seem to be doing quite better than me. Lizzie has been as she always was except that she has been able to make more friends. Boots or Maggie as we call her now, has probably been doing the best out of the three of us. She's made quite a lot of great friends whom she hangs out with very often. None of us really mention the Underland at all and we all know that we probably won't see it ever again. Anyway, I laid down on my bed and closed my eyes. Before I knew it, I lost consciousness.

When I awoke, the time was 7:37 pm. About 40 minutes or so after dinner. I for some odd reason I felt the urge to go outside and get some fresh air so I put on some shoes and left my room. My mom was sitting down watching TV, my dad was going through papers, and my grandma was sitting in a rocking chair, knitting.

I began to speak. "I'm going out for a short walk," I said walking by. My mom looked up. "Okay, but be sure to be back before 8:30, we've got a game of cards to play," she said turning her head back to the TV.

I then walked up to the door, turned the knob, and walked outside. I took a deep breath and began walking down the hall towards the stairwell. Taking walks have always been a nice pass time for me. Although, this one felt like it was gonna be different. But you know, different isn't always bad. Different can be better too as some say. I walked down the stairs all the way down to the first floor. Then, I continued walking out of the building.

The streets of New York were packed as they usually were. It was just getting dark and the sky was covered in light orange clouds. The air was nice and cool. A faint breeze was whizzing by my ears. The sounds of people and cars were constantly heard throughout the city.

As I walked along the sidewalks, I got further and further away from home. I always go quite a distance away from home on my walks so nothing was really different for me just yet.

Continuing on and on, I watched as the sun went down over the shorter buildings. As I stopped to take in the last bit of sunlight from behind me, I was suddenly jerked forward from behind. I immediately turned and saw a young man with his hood knocked off. He was very pale and you could very clearly see his veins on his skin. He had yellow eyes and unnaturally blond hair. "Sorry sir, I didn't see you there. I'm kind of in a rush. Sorry again," he said with an odd accent and a sinister sounding tone. He put his hood back on and continued on walking.

I knew, without a doubt, this man was from the Underland and he was not to be trusted. And without thinking, I began to follow this man.

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 **That was a great chapter. Right? It took me quite a while to get this like I had hoped. Hope Y'all enjoyed. See Y'all again next chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2: Once There Was a Path

**Hey hey! Chapter 2 is out and you guys have gotta get to reading I've got a feeling you will like it (Maybe). Input is much appreciated. Okay, I'm off. Ready, Set, GO.**

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 **Chapter 2**

 **Once there was a path**

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Okay, so I was following this random guy that I just met (hopefully without him knowing) all because I had a hunch that this dude was bad news. I gotta say I'm probably not gonna be home in time for cards, not that I wanted to play cards anyway.

This man kept walking for quite a ways until he walked up to an abandoned building. It seemed to be an old and small apartment building. It was boarded up around all the windows. There was a sign on the front door that read 'Do not enter: structural damage. Entry may result in serious or fatal injury.' Even with that sign there, the man opened up the door and went inside. I looked around to see if anyone was watching. " _Ehhh, what the heck,_ " I thought and without hesitation, I walked up to the door and slowly opened it so the man couldn't hear me enter.

The inside of the building was very run down with many tears in the walls, floor, and ceiling. Other than a few bits of litter, the first room was pretty empty. Then I heard creeks coming from below the floor. I looked around for how the man had gotten down there. Soon, I spotted a hidden trapdoor under a cardboard box. I opened up the hatch and climbed down to the basement.

The basement was by no means, any better looking than the rest of the building. In fact, it might even look worse. A bunch of beer cans lay among the floor, skeletons of dead rodents haunted the place, and the walls were torn and battered. I gotta say anyone who hung out in this place is a loony. Though this is an Underlander that I'm looking for so maybe it makes a small bit of sense.

Back to looking around. I saw a curtain hung on the wall that was swaying back and forth, further than a curtain should be swaying so I pulled the curtain back and revealed a small door. The door wasn't too small I was easily able to lean down a bit to go in. Inside there was a path leading further down beneath the city. I then closed my eyes and listened closely. After a few seconds, I heard a footstep further along the way. The path obviously wasn't lit up. I guess it's a good thing that I know echolocation. Without too much thought, I began walking down the path.

The path seemed to go on forever and I lost track of time. I began wondering what I would find. Maybe this man was just a dude who liked to take a stroll in creepy places, maybe he was living up here like a hermit, etc. Heck whatever he's doing, he better not be stealing anything from above the surface.

After a while, I heard voices a bit ahead. I couldn't tell what they were talking about, so I continued forward. Eventually, I came upon a door. On the other side, I could hear the voices, they were not right on the other side. In fact, they were coming from close below. I gathered my thoughts and slowly cracked open the door. I could see torches hung on the wall.

From what I tell there was nobody on this top part. There were stairs that went down below. I opened the door a bit more and crept into the room. Looking around I realized this part of the room was a balcony over a room below. The voices came from right below. I took a deep breath and looked up over the railing on the stairs.

There the Underlander was but there were five other beings with him. First, there was a jet black bat with a huge scar on its back from the tail to the middle of its left wing. Second, there was another human but with black armor with red leather clothing under this man's face was quite menacing and had a very dark stare. The third was a rat with dark brown fur and plates of metal strapped to its back. The fourth was a mole with metal blades attached to its claws. And the fifth startled me.

It was a young man easily put between 19-25. He was without a doubt an Underlander dressed in the clothing of a Regalian scout. But the startling part was that he was strapped to a table and had many gashes on his body.

Then the man that I ran into outside pulled his cloak off. He was wearing armor I had never seen before. It was black much like the other man's but this armor was more menacing. It had blades on the sides of the gauntlets, shoulders, and knees stained with blood.

The scout lifted his head to get a better look at the man. The scout's eyes widened after looking at him. He then opened his mouth to speak. "Caris," he choked. "I thought... you were... in prison."

Caris smirked then spoke. "I was, but you see, I escaped with the help of my loyal friends," he gestured towards his companions. "Now you see scout, all I need is some information from you. I'd like to know where the Convention will be located."

The scout coughed, "Hah.. why should I tell you? What could you possibly want from that?"

The Caris laughed, "As an answer to the second question, I'll say you don't need to know. For the first question, well I think you have no choice if you want me to hold myself back from killing the young man that just walked in not too long ago." The scout's eyes moved to where I was standing. My stomach churned. They knew I was here the entire time.

"Don't attempt to leave, I wouldn't even try at this point," the Caris said. I looked around for a weapon. "You know, I'd like you to come down here and say hi to my friends," Caris smirked. "I think you'll make a nice prisoner." I saw a glint of metal from below a floorboard. I tore up the wood and drew out a sword with a dark silver blade and an obsidian handle. " _Well, I hope I can still fight_ ," I thought.

"Make your decision young man," Caris demanded, "Come down here or die." I stood up and raised the sword.

"I'll come down but I won't be your prisoner," I said. Caris laughed. He walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a sword. He walked towards his companions. "Leave us we don't need this place anymore," he commanded, "Lelentos, stay at the end of the hall, I will join you after I take care of these two." Caris' companions nodded and left the through a door at the other side of the room. Caris turned to face me and readied his sword. He laughed and began advancing.

I took a really deep breath and readied my blade, keeping my eye on Caris. After a brief silence, I lifted my sword and struck. Caris dodged and swung upwards knocking me back. "I'm going to enjoy every second of this," Caris chided. He continued slashing until I was backed up to a corner. I looked around for an opening. He was about to swing again then I found my opening.

I leaped onto a box to the side and kicked off a stray brick sticking out of the wall. Then I broke into a midair vertical spin hitting my opponent's sword and knocking it out of his grip. He quickly swerved out of reach and retreated backward away from me. "It seems I underestimated you," Caris exclaimed. The man retrieved his sword from the ground and began walking toward the exit. "Beware, I will not go so easy on you next time," Caris challenged. He turned his back and left the room.

I sighed and sat down a box to catch my breath. " _Jeez who was that guy?_ " I thought to myself before remembering to free the scout. I walked over to the table and cut the scout's restraints. The scout sat up despite his injuries. "Hey take it easy. You don't want to get even more hurt do you?" I remarked. The scout slid off the table and onto a nearby box.

"I'll be fine, I've been through worse," he said enthusiastically. The scout began examining me closely. His eyes widened after a bit. "You... You're the warrior aren't you?" the scout asked. I took a deep breath. "No, I was the warrior. I killed him," I corrected. "Anyway, how'd you know who I am."

The scout let out a deep sigh. "Four reasons. One- you are an overlander. Two- you can fight well. Three- you were unnerved by the sight of the creatures of the Underland. Four- I saw you when you broke Sandwich's sword and 'killed yourself,'" He stated. The scout stood up and began gathering things from around the room and putting them into a bag near a bookshelf. He tried moving the shelf but began grimacing in pain. I walked over and moved the shelf over for him. "Thank you," the scout said and sat back down on another box.

Now I bet you're all wondering what exactly this 'Convention' is. I don't know and I probably shouldn't get into this. It's not really my problem. Then again, my past adventures down in the Underland didn't have much to do with me either. Although I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask what the 'Convention' is. I sat down on a table near to the scout.

"What is the 'Convention?'" I asked the scout. The scout took a breath and began to scratch his head. "Hmm before I tell you about that, I think you should know who I am first," the scout said, "My name is Ranuik of the Regalia 34th advanced scout team. Currently, we are located at a double exit to the Overland as in there are two entrances to the Underland from this room. The one I came through is a cave hidden by the edge of the waterway closest to spinner territory. The other, well, I don't know I just recently discovered this passage. This is where I got captured. I had come in here and came upon this hidden entrance to this room and slid the shelf back. But then Caris' team ambushed me a few minutes after I got here. My assignment was to track a team of kidnappers who have been abducting individuals from all the species."

"I'm going to go ahead and guess that this team was with Caris," I suggested.

"Right on. All I know about Caris is that he was imprisoned about 8 years ago for the murder of 17 Regalian palace guards," Raniuk explained, "Now I guess I'll explain to you what the 'Convention' is. The 'Convention' is a collection of two-three ambassadors from all species accompanied by three teams of five guards. Not one person besides the leader of the species knows who the ambassadors are, not even ambassadors themselves know who each other are. The main goal of the convention is to present ideas to the others at the convention that will influence how each species can help each other. The location of the convention is different every year and only the commanding officer of the three escort teams and the head of each species knows where the convention is held. That's about it really. If you want to know more you can come back down and ask my boss."

"Okay. I think I get it," I responded. Ranuik stood up and began going towards the exit. "If you would like to come back down to the Underland for a bit. I know you may not be able to come or you just don't want to. But if you find a way to come, I'll be waiting below the entrance below your apartment." I nodded and Ranuik left through the exit. I slid the shelf back in place, picked up the sword, and swung the sword across the wall so hard it shattered.

I began making my way back up out of the cave. I wondered what I should do. Stay above or go down below. If I'm going to go below, I'm gonna need a plan.

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 **And that's all for now folks. More to come eventually. Just don't harass me on uploading a new chapter it will come just wait. Although I don't keep a schedule. See Y'all later.**


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